The Ambush
by DJ Winston
Summary: Tony and Gibbs are ambushed at a crime scene. Can they make it out alive?
1. Chapter 1

The Ambush – Chapter 1

Gibbs nodded and flashed his badge at the two cops standing guard over the dead body.

"We found this on him," one of the cops said, handing the ID to Gibbs.

"Petty Officer Mark Stanley," Gibbs read aloud.

Tony knelt down to examine the body.

"Looks like he took two shots to the chest and he's lying on something—it looks like a gym bag," Tony said.

One of the cops reached down to pull the bag out from under the body.

"Don't touch anything; we need to wait for the coroner," Tony started to say. He had barely finished the sentence when he was interrupted by gunfire. Tony swung around, his gun drawn. As he did, he saw one of the cops fall. The other one was already on the ground, a pool of blood near his head.

Gibbs was returning gunfire, but the shots were coming from three different locations. He and Tony ran into a nearby barn.

Bullets were piercing the rotted walls of the old barn. Looking for cover, Tony found a ladder up to the loft. He knew they weren't safe on the ground floor.

"Up here," he yelled to Gibbs.

The loft was full of baled hay. Tony started stacking it in an attempt to create a protective wall from the gunfire. Gibbs made his way up the ladder and then pulled the ladder up into the loft. He and Tony crawled between the bales and took a moment to reorganize.

Catching his breath, Tony glanced over at Gibbs.

"Gibbs, are you okay?" he said, a look of confusion on his face.

Gibbs looked down at his shirt. A blood stain was expanding across the left side of his shirt.

"I think you've been shot," Tony whispered.

"You think?" Gibbs quipped sitting down on a hay bale. He was still in the adrenaline "grace period"—the time right after a trauma when the body doesn't feel pain, but he knew that would end soon.

"Here, apply pressure to it," Tony said, balling up his coat and placing it against Gibbs' chest.

Gibbs reacted slowly, still seemingly surprised by the gunshot wound, so Tony took Gibbs' hand and placed it over the coat and pushed it against the wound.

"Keep pressure on it while I figure out how to get out of here."


	2. Chapter 2

The Ambush – Chapter Two

Tony started looking for a way out of the barn. If he could divert the attention of the armed men for a few moments, he and Gibbs might have a chance to escape.

Tony put the ladder in place and climbed down to the first floor of the barn. To his right was a workman's bench crowded with old jars and rusted farming tools. He grabbed three jars with lids. On the floor, next to the bench, was a red can half full of liquid. Tony took a whiff. "Turpentine," he said to himself, "That'll do."

Tony climbed back up into the loft. "Here," he said placing the jars on a bale of hay next to Gibbs. "We can make Molotov cocktails."

With no time to waste, Gibbs grabbed a jar and pierced the metal lid with his knife. Then he started filling it with turpentine.

While Gibbs worked on the flammable devices, Tony carefully examined the loft. Running along the top was a rail with a large metal claw on it.

"What's that metal thing?" he asked Gibbs pointing toward the ceiling.

"It's an old hay claw," Gibbs replied. "Haven't seen one of those in years."

Gibbs remembered the hay claw in his grandfather's barn. "They used it to hoist hay into the loft," he continued.

"Can we use it to get out of here?" Tony asked.

"If it's hooked up to a rope, we could let ourselves down using the guide rope," Gibbs said.

"Do you think you can do this Boss?" Tony said. The size of the bloodstain across Gibbs' shirt appeared to have stopped spreading.

"Just get moving," Gibbs commanded.

Tony jumped up on some baled hay and reached for the claw. It was rusted and the track it hung from was warped and missing screws. He wasn't even sure it would stay attached to the ceiling.

Looking out the west side of the loft, Tony could see a cornfield. He called McGee.

"We're in the loft of the barn. We're coming down the west side and heading toward the cornfield. I can see the police cars on the road beyond the field. Tell everyone to hold their fire."

"Will do," McGee responded. After a moment, he said, "Tony?"

"Yeah," Tony replied.

"Be safe," McGee said quietly and then ended the call.

Tony grabbed the rope to test its strength. It was frayed and old, but luckily, not as old as the hay claw.

"I think this will hold us," he said motioning to Gibbs.

The rope was strung over a pulley at the top of the roof. Tony figured that he and Gibbs could hold onto the claw and then Tony could control their descent using the rope that that hung on opposite side of the pulley.

Tony heard men talking in the barn below him.

"Quick!" he said, "We're going to head toward the cornfield."

Gibbs nodded.

Tony lit the first cocktail and threw it out the front of the loft setting the front barn door on fire. Simultaneously, Gibbs threw the second one out of the loft into the barn below them. He could hear the men shout as a fireball erupted in the loose hay.

Tony guided the claw along the rail toward the back opening of the loft. Once it was positioned over the ground, he threw the last cocktail down toward the back door of the barn.

"Let's go," he said turning to Gibbs. Tony grabbed both ropes and then he and Gibbs jumped onto the claw. They were about 10 feet from the ground when a knot in the rope caught in the pulley. The claw jolted to a stop causing Gibbs and Tony to lose their grip. Both tumbled to the ground.

Tony found himself lying on the dirt, his breath completely knocked out of him, but he knew there was not time to waste. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Gibbs by the arm.

"This way," he said pulling Gibbs toward the cornfield. He could hear gunshots being fired behind them and he thought he felt a crackle of air as a bullet whizzed past his head.

Once in the cornfield, Tony led Gibbs in a zigzag pattern, hoping to elude the men.

Tony could see the lights of the police cars just beyond the final row of corn. "We're almost there," he yelled back to Gibbs.

"Gibbs?" he said again when he got no answer. Tony stopped. Where the hell was Gibbs?

Tony turned around and started tracing their path toward the barn. About 20 feet back, he found Gibbs lying on the ground—he was not sure what had happened or if Gibbs was even alive. Tony hoisted him up over his shoulder and turned to run back toward the road, stumbling over mounds of dry dirt and corn stalks.

At the edge of the field, he was met by a bevy of policemen, but he didn't stop. He continued running toward the road until he could lay Gibbs down on a gurney.

"Is he alive?" Tony asked hesitantly.

"Yeah," one of the EMTs said. Tony stepped back while the paramedics assessed Gibbs.

In the meantime, McGee ran over to Tony.

"Glad to see you," he said.

"Not as happy as I am to see you," Tony replied still high on adrenaline.

A paramedic walked over to the two of them. "It's not a deep wound," he said to Tony, "Your boss was lucky."

Tony nodded and looked over at McGee obviously relieved.

The paramedics called them over to the truck. Gibbs was awake.

"You did good," Gibbs whispered to Tony as they loaded him into the ambulance.

McGee patted Tony on the back. "Come on," he said, "I'll drive you to the hospital."


End file.
